


Alive

by rebel_wren



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Execution, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, Imprisonment, Near Death, Rescue, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28452990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_wren/pseuds/rebel_wren
Summary: Hera and Zeb are captured, and set to be executed after they refuse to give up any information under interrogation. However, something seems a little off with the stormtroopers set to execute them...
Relationships: Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios & Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Space Family (Star Wars Rebels)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	Alive

**Author's Note:**

> I've been caught up in the Reunited series (which will be updating soon!) and haven't written one of these short little one-off stories in a while, so here's one that's been bouncing around my brain for a little while.

The door to the Imperial base’s prison cell opened up, and Zeb, accompanied by an Imperial officer and two stormtroopers armed with large electro-staffs, was pushed inside, collapsing on the floor. Hera, who was sitting on the floor alone previously, quickly crawled to his side, putting a hand under his head and taking his much larger hand in her other one.

“Since neither of you have proved yourselves willing to talk,” the officer said. “Then you’re no use to us. Your execution will be tomorrow- unless you have something to say.”

The cell door slammed shut, and Hera was left in the darkness with Zeb. Her eyes grew wet as she tried to help him sit up against the wall.

“I’m sorry, Zeb,” she said quietly. “This was my fault.”

“No, it’s not,” he said, his voice raspy. “Don’t say that.”

Hera looked towards the door.

“We can’t tell ‘em anything,” Zeb said.

“I know, I wasn’t going to,” Hera said, still eyeing the door. “I just… I can’t figure a way out of this one. No matter how hard I try.”

She looked back at Zeb, who shrugged weakly. “I think this might be it.”

Hera looked down at the floor, letting out a shaky sigh. She’d failed Zeb- he was part of her crew, her family, and she’d bitten off more than she could chew with this mission and led them both to their deaths.

She found it hard to think of anybody but the rest of her crew- Sabine and Ezra would be devastated, and she wasn’t sure what Chopper would do.

But Kanan.

The last time she saw him, they got in an argument about the mission she and Zeb were going on. He’d told her he had a bad feeling about it, and that he didn’t want her to go.

_ “I don’t care, Kanan!” _

Those were her last words to him- and now, they would be forever.

Zeb reached an arm out to pull her to his side, and Hera let him, stretching out so they were laying together on the cold metal floor.

“There has to be… something we can do,” she said. “If we can get to the comm tower-”

“Do you know where the comm tower is?”

Hera paused, but finally shook her head. Zeb simply pulled her close against him.

“Let’s get some sleep,” Zeb said. Hera hesitantly rested on him, though her eyes still looked around their cell, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way out for them.

_ This can’t be it _ , Hera thought.

But it was.

* * *

The stormtroopers that woke them up didn’t handle it with any gentleness. Two of them walked Zeb down the hall with stun prods mere centimeters from his shoulders, which were already pulled back tight from the binders on his wrists being slightly too small for Lasat arms, while another one simply placed binders on Hera, keeping her hands behind her back and practically dragged her down the hall. Hera tripped at one point, and the trooper holding her arm spat a curse at her roughly pulled her to her feet.

The fourth trooper- who hadn’t touched either of them, wore a commander’s orange pauldron on his shoulder, and was a little taller than the rest- shook his helmeted head at this.

“Is that necessary?”

His voice, oddly enough, was soothing to Hera, even through his helmet’s modulator.

“What do you care,” the other trooper scoffed, giving another tug at Hera’s arm for good measure. The commander stayed quiet. They were taken to what Hera could only assume was an execution chamber, a dark grey room. It was empty and very plain looking- she supposed the Empire didn’t think its prisoners deserved more than that.

“Stand against the wall,” the trooper holding Hera’s arms barked, pushing her forward, almost causing her to stumble. She shot a glare back at him- not that it would change anything- but walked up to the wall, hands still bound behind her chest. Her heart was racing, and her eyes darted around as much as they could, looking for something,  _ anything  _ to keep her going. Anything to give her hope that somehow, she could do something to save them.

But there wasn’t anything.

She looked mournfully to Zeb, who kept his eyes trained on the ground, his ears flat against his head. She swallowed hard, and looked at the floor too. She heard a door slide open in the back of the room, where the troopers stood.

“Excuse me,” a gruff voice behind her said- also clearly filtered through a stormtrooper helmet. “You three, you’re needed in- in uh- uh-”

“In docking bay one,” the commander’s voice said quickly. “I just remembered- thank you, trooper, for reminding me. Commander’s orders- you three here, you go. We’ll take the executions from here.”

Hera spared a look back to see three of the troopers that had walked her and Zeb from their cell file out, and three new troopers took their places. The three other troopers were all shorter than the three that left, one of them being much smaller, and another being a little bigger. Hera was still looking at them when the same officer from the day before walked in, hands behind his back in proper stance, and Hera quickly turned back to face the wall. The wall was littered with blastermarks, and Hera tried to count how many clearly defined ones she could find to distract herself.

“Ready your blasters troopers,” the officer said. “On my mark.”

Hera looked again at Zeb, who glanced at her. He gave a small, sad nod that broke Hera’s heart. She heard the sound of four blasters behind her click as they were readied.

“Thank you,” Zeb mouthed. Hera’s eyes grew wet, and she looked down at the ground, closing her eyes. She heard the officer give a small, satisfied chuckle.

“Fire!”

Hera screwed up her face, waiting for some kind of pain- that never arrived. She heard the blasters go off, but was too afraid to open her eyes.

_ Am I dead? _

She heard the sound of a body hit the ground, and opened her eyes to look at Zeb- who also stood next to her, apparently just as confused. The wall in front of Hera had three smoking blastermarks, but they were way off point- even for stormtroopers. She turned around to see the four stormtroopers standing there, blasters lowered, and the officer dead on the ground.

“What-”

The commander took his helmet off, tossing it on the ground, and Hera gasped as she felt the tears that had filled her eyes finally fall.

“Kanan!” she cried, running at him, only to realize once she was too close that the binders still kept her hands behind her back. But Kanan didn’t seem to care, he just let out a small laugh and wrapped his arms tight around her, dropping the blaster too. The plastoid armor was uncomfortable to be held against, but Hera couldn’t find herself caring at all. She let out a relieved sigh- she was alive, she was with her family, and she was in Kanan’s arms. They were going to take her home, and she’d be safe.

“Here,” he said after a moment, pulling away. “Let me get these off.”

Hera nodded and turned around to find the smiling faces of Rex, Sabine and Ezra greeting her, their stolen helmets tucked under their arms.

“I didn’t think anyone was coming for us,” Hera said.

“We’re a family,” Ezra said. “We wouldn’t give up on you.”

There was a small sparking sound, and the binders fell from Hera’s wrists to the floor, and she brought her hands in front of her, rubbing at her wrists as she turned back around to face Kanan.

“Love,” she said, putting her hand to his cheek. He smiled at her, making her heart flutter. “I-”

She was startled by a loud klaxon going off, and the lights of the ship beginning to flash.

“We need to get out of here,” Sabine said. She tossed the officer’s small blaster pistol to Hera, who caught it and spun it into her hand. “Chopper already got all your things from lock-up, he’s at the ship.”

Hera stepped back from Kanan, who bent down to pick up the blaster rifle he’d dropped to hug her. She saw Ezra finish cutting the large binders that were on Zeb’s wrist.

“How’d you find us?” Hera asked

“Tracked their comms. Stole a shuttle,” Sabine remarked with a grin. “Don’t worry about it.”

Hera shook her head. “Hey, I’m in no position to be questioning anything.”

The thick binders dropped from Zeb’s arms, and he flexed his wrists. She could see the raw marks that they left behind from squeezing him much too tightly.

“Sorry Zeb, don’t have an extra gun for you,” Ezra said.

Zeb just chuckled and smacked his fist against his palm. “Don’t need one.”

Hera grinned- she was happy to see the Zeb she knew instead of the tired, hopeless one she woke up with.

Hera readied her pistol and followed Kanan, Sabine, Rex and Ezra all out of the execution chamber, all of them having tossed their helmets aside, favoring visibility over their already-blown cover. They ran down the hallway, shooting at stray stormtroopers and officers that they caught the eye of- Zeb managed to wrestle a blaster rifle from a stormtrooper with a pauldron that matched Kanan’s.

They rounded a corner, only to be greeted by dozens of stormtroopers, with blasters at the ready. Hera gasped and raised her pistol, but before she could fire the doors quickly shut. She looked over to see Sabine tapping furiously at the control panel.

“It’ll take them a while to unlock this,” Sabine said.

“Is there another way to the hangar?” Kanan asked.

Sabine looked to Kanan, and then looked around the hallways, clearly thinking. Hera felt a prickly fear go down her spine.

Great. Now her whole crew- and Rex- were going down because of her.

Blasterfire and yelling erupted from behind the closed door. Startled, Hera, Zeb and their rescuers all raised their blasters to the door, backing up slowly, tentatively watching. Sabine backed from the control panel, her blaster trained towards the door.

The noise ceased, and after just a moment, the blast doors opened just an inch. Hera’s grip on her pistol tightened, and the doors slowly pushed open…

“Chopper!” Hera said, relieved.

The astromech droid- painted black and red over his usual orange and yellow color, waved with one of his tiny mechanical arms, and Hera laughed from relief. She climbed through the blast doors, the rest of the crew following her. Hera patted Chopper’s dome.

“Thanks,” she said. He made a happy warble sound and rolled down the hall, swerving through the scattered stormtroopers that now littered the floor. Hera followed him, careful to step over them herself, and they reached the hangar. Kanan pointed to a shuttle on the far end of the hangar, towards the outer launchpad.

“That one’s ours,” he said. “Let’s go.” Hera ran with him, the rest of the group following, and they only had to fire a few times at stormtroopers in the hangar- but Hera could see some TIE pilots climbing into their fighters.

“They’ll be after us,” Hera said once they reached the ramp of the shuttle. “Let’s hurry!”

Hera jumped into the pilot’s seat, starting liftoff procedures once everyone else had made it inside. The ramp finished closing as Hera took off, racing up to break the atmosphere.

“Hera, are you sure you’re okay to fly?”

Hera spared a look back to Sabine, who looked concerned. Zeb did too- he was very familiar with the torture that they’d both endured while captured there. Hera simply nodded.

“I always am.”

Rex, Zeb, Ezra and Sabine all sat down in the shuttle, and Chopper plugged into it, already entering the hyperspace coordinates that they needed. Kanan positioned himself right behind the pilot’s chair, gripping the back tight to steady himself while Hera maneuvered to avoid getting hit by the TIE’s cannons.

“Karabast,” she muttered. “Damn thing’s too slow. Chop- can you divert all power to the thrusters?”

Chopper warbled indignantly that she was interrupting the hyperspace logging, but did as he was told.

“What about the shields?” Sabine protested.

“Don’t need them if we don’t get hit.”

“Hera,” Kanan said, his voice laced with worry. “I don’t think you should- maybe you should let me-”

“I got it,” she said. “I’m fine.”

She narrowly avoided a bolt from one of the TIEs, and the ship was going a lot faster now- they were out of atmosphere a lot quicker than they would’ve been otherwise.

“Chopper,” she said. “Can we jump?”

Chopper didn’t answer.

“Chopper?”

He made a quick, loud sound, and Hera pushed the ship into hyperspace, finally letting the tension in her shoulders dissipate as the stars streaked beyond the viewport and they were surrounded by blue. She spun around in her chair, smiling at her crew and Rex- who looked every bit as relieved as she was.

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you- thank you all so much.”

“Yeah,” Zeb said. “I thought it was over.”

Sabine affectionately rubbed his shoulder at that, and he threw his arm around her, putting his other one over Ezra too, pulling them both for a close, tight hug. Hera laughed quietly, shaking her head and looking over to Rex.

“Thank you, Rex.”

Rex just shrugged and gave a half-salute with his hand. “Any time, Captain.”

* * *

“Thought you were in bed.”

Zeb’s voice startled her, and Hera jumped a little, but managed to compose herself enough to not spill the glass of water she poured herself. She turned around to see him standing at the entrance of the  _ Ghost _ ’s kitchen.

“I thought you were too,” she said.

Zeb shrugged, stepping into the room and going towards the fridge. “Just needed another snack. They didn’t do a good job feeding us there.”

Hera snorted, looking down at her water, watching it still wavering slightly in the glass from when she jumped.

Hera didn’t realize she was looking down that long, until Zeb nudged her arm.

“You alright?”

Hera nodded.

“Yeah.”

“You sure? You don’t have to be.”

“Zeb-”

“Just saying- we came real close to dying today, that’s all,” Zeb said, uncovering a plate of leftovers as he pulled them out of the fridge. “You should take it easy.”

Hera gave him a tight-lipped smile, unable to help eyeing the dark bruises around his wrists. “Yeah…”

She finished her water, and sighed as she put it in the sink.

“Good night, Zeb,” she said.

“Good night. Get some rest.”

* * *

Hera opened Kanan’s door, and he sat straight up in bed, nearly hitting his head on the bunk above him, making Hera chuckle quietly as she made her way to him.

“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t know- I don’t know, thought you wanted to sleep in your room.”

She shook her head as she sat down next to him. “No, I… I don’t think I want to be alone tonight.”

Kanan nodded, turning himself so his feet were off the edge of the bed too, and put his arm over her shoulders. He pulled her close and pressed a gentle kiss to her temple.

“I’m sorry,” Hera said, leaning into him. “You were right about the mission. I should’ve listened to you.”

Kanan shook his head. “No- I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have just tried to stop you from going, I should have talked about it more. I let… I let my fear of losing you overtake me. And I should have respected your decision.”

“But you were right.”

“That’s not the point, though. We could have compromised, come up with a different plan, anything. But I let myself get… angry, and I didn’t talk to you with the respect you deserve, so you got angry too.”

Hera nodded. “Thank you, love. But I’m still sorry too. I should’ve tried to hear you out more, instead of just shutting you down.”

Kanan smiled at her, and moved his hand up to gently stroke his fingers down her lekku, making Hera feel warm inside.

“Thank you,” he said, moving his other hand to cup her cheek. “I… really thought I was going to lose you.”

Hera lifted her hand to put it over the one he had on her cheek. “I thought… I mean, we came really close. I’ve almost died so many times, but this time was different. I just felt so helpless, all I could do was just… stand there. We’re lucky you guys found us. I can’t thank you enough.”

“No thanks required,” Kanan said.

He leaned in and kissed her, and Hera hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted to kiss him again until that moment, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him tight.

It was good to be alive.


End file.
